Formal deportations (removals) per year, by president
A “removal” is a court- or agency-ordered deportation that carries legal penalties, distinct from an informal border “return.” Averaged per year of each term, formal removals were highest under Obama by this measure (the “deporter in chief” figure). Trump II is a partial, in-progress term.
The figures behind the bars
President
Term total removals
Per-year avg
Peak year
Clinton (FY1993–2000)
~870,000
~109,000
FY2000 ~188k
Bush (FY2001–2008)
~2,013,000
~252,000
FY2008 ~360k
Obama (FY2009–2016)
~3.06M
~383,000
FY2013 ~432k
Trump I (FY2017–2020)
~1,196,000
~299,000
FY2019 ~347k
Biden (FY2021–2024)
~703,000
~176,000
FY2024 ~330k
Trump II (2025–, partial)
~590,000 (ICE only)
not annualized
FY2026 on record pace
Removals are not the whole story, keep this in view. Counting only formal removals understates earlier eras. Add informal border “returns” (voluntary departures, used heavily before the mid-2000s) and total expulsions were roughly 10.3 million under Bush vs 5.2 million under Obama, the opposite ranking. Obama-era removals look historically high partly because a deliberate policy shift reclassified border cases from “returns” into formal “removals” (FY2011 was the first year since 1941 that removals exceeded returns). Title 42 public-health expulsions (~3M, 2020–2023) are a separate category, excluded here. Trump II is a partial term and is not annualized.